Ogden Standard-Examiner

If we have a voucher system, it is the children who win

October 7, 2007

By Tom Koehler
Guest commentary

http://www.standard.net/live/opinion/letterstotheeditor/115552/

It has been interesting to read all the opinions concerning the school voucher program. If I had to sum up, in one word, all the opinions opposing vouchers, it would be "fear." The only legitimate fear that we, as Americans, should have when it comes to education is the obvious decline in our children's academic ability, which has been well documented over the past decades.

Now, I am not one to say that the solitary reason for that is our current educational system; we all know the problem is deeper than just the schools. However, certainly our public schools are part of the equation and deserve to be scrutinized and competed against when it comes to our children's education.

But my fundamental question is this: Since when are we, as Americans, afraid of choice, less government involvement and marketplace competition? I, too, would be afraid if we were doing away with the public system and not leaving any choice for those currently in the system; but we all know that is not what is going to happen.

If the private schools are not getting the job done, no one is going to use the vouchers. It seems like the biggest fear that people have is that the private schools will succeed. What would happen then? The public schools would have to get their act together and would become better -- capitalism at its best!

Even if the private schools do so well that it puts the public schools out of business -- I doubt that could happen, but even if it does -- who wins? The children; I see no risk.

Most of the arguments leveled against the voucher program are the same ones which were raised against charter schools. We allowed the charter program and it hasn't killed the public school system. In some ways it has enhanced it for the same reasons the vouchers would. Vouchers, however, would require far less money than the charter system does. Again, I see no risk.

As for fear of using tax dollars for private schools, I see no legitimacy in this argument, either. People have been using tax dollars via the G.I. Bill and government grants to go to private colleges for ages. It is clear to all that these private institutions know how to make very good use of these monies, and the competition that they give to the system is good for them and the country.

I'm writing this because I believe a voucher system would be best for the good of our country and the good of our children. I hope you don't believe for a second that the National Education Association could say the same. Their fears have little to do with the interests of children.

In the words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Koehler is retired from the U.S. Air Force, a minister at Christ Community Church in West Point. He is a board member of NUAMES, Northern Utah Academy for Math, Engineering & Science, a charter high school located on the campus of Weber State University.